This Norton Critical Edition is designed to make Paradise Lost accessible for student readers, providing invaluable contextual and biographical information and the tools students need to think critically about this landmark epic. Gordon Teskey's freshly edited text of Milton's masterpiece is accompanied by a new introduction and substantial explanatory annotations. Spelling and punctuation have been modernized, the latter, importantly, within the limits imposed by Milton's syntax.

"Sources and Backgrounds" collects relevant passages from the Bible and Milton's prose writings, including selections from The Reason of Church Government and the full text of Areopagitica.

"Criticism" brings together classic interpretations by Andrew Marvell, John Dryden, Victor Hugo, and T. S. Eliot, among others, and the most important recent criticism and scholarship surrounding the epic, including essays by Northrop Frye, Barbara Lewalski, Christopher Ricks, and Helen Vendler.

Acknowledgements General Editors' Preface Introduction 1 1 Paradise Lost and the English Revolution 15 2 The Protestant Epic and the Spirit of Capitalism 28 3 Religion and Ideology: A Political Reading of Paradise Lost 47 4 Milton's Bogey: Patriarchal Poetry and Women Readers 58 5 'Rational Burning': Milton on Sex and Marriage 67 6 The Genesis of Gendered Subjectivity in Paradise Lost 88 7 Paradise Lost and the Primal Scene 102 8 Adam and his 'Other Self' in Paradise Lost: A Lacanian Study in Psychic Development 117 9 Paradise Lost: Ideology, Phantasy and Contradiction 136 10 Adam on the Grass with Balsamum 145 11 Paradise Lost as Master-Narrative 160 12 Freedom, Service, and the Trade in Slaves: The Problem of Labour in Paradise Lost 170 Further Reading 195 Notes on Contributors 199 Index 201

This Norton Critical Edition is designed to make Paradise Lost accessible for student readers, providing invaluable contextual and biographical information and the tools students need to think critically about this landmark epic. Gordon Teskey's freshly edited text of Milton's masterpiece is accompanied by a new introduction and substantial explanatory annotations. Spelling and punctuation have been modernized, the latter, importantly, within the limits imposed by Milton's syntax.

"Sources and Backgrounds" collects relevant passages from the Bible and Milton's prose writings, including selections from The Reason of Church Government and the full text of Areopagitica.

"Criticism" brings together classic interpretations by Andrew Marvell, John Dryden, Victor Hugo, and T. S. Eliot, among others, and the most important recent criticism and scholarship surrounding the epic, including essays by Northrop Frye, Barbara Lewalski, Christopher Ricks, and Helen Vendler.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements General Editors' Preface Introduction 1 1 Paradise Lost and the English Revolution 15 2 The Protestant Epic and the Spirit of Capitalism 28 3 Religion and Ideology: A Political Reading of Paradise Lost 47 4 Milton's Bogey: Patriarchal Poetry and Women Readers 58 5 'Rational Burning': Milton on Sex and Marriage 67 6 The Genesis of Gendered Subjectivity in Paradise Lost 88 7 Paradise Lost and the Primal Scene 102 8 Adam and his 'Other Self' in Paradise Lost: A Lacanian Study in Psychic Development 117 9 Paradise Lost: Ideology, Phantasy and Contradiction 136 10 Adam on the Grass with Balsamum 145 11 Paradise Lost as Master-Narrative 160 12 Freedom, Service, and the Trade in Slaves: The Problem of Labour in Paradise Lost 170 Further Reading 195 Notes on Contributors 199 Index 201